Antarctic Ice Sheet elevation impacts on water isotope records during the Last Interglacial

Changes of the topography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) can complicate the interpretation of ice core water stable isotope measurements in terms of temperature. Here, we use a set of idealised AIS elevation change scenarios to investigate this for the warm Last Interglacial (LIG). We show that LI...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Goursaud, Sentia, Holloway, Max, Sime, Louise, Wolff, Eric, Valdes, Paul, Steig, Eric J., Pauling, Andrew
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2021
Subjects:
Antarctic
Talos Dome
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
ice core
Ice Sheet
Sea ice
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529314/
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/529314/1/2020GL091412.pdf
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL091412
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Summary:Changes of the topography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) can complicate the interpretation of ice core water stable isotope measurements in terms of temperature. Here, we use a set of idealised AIS elevation change scenarios to investigate this for the warm Last Interglacial (LIG). We show that LIG δ 18 O against elevation relationships are not uniform across Antarctica, and that the LIG response to elevation is lower than the preindustrial response. The effect of LIG elevation‐induced sea ice changes on δ 18 O is small, allowing us to isolate the effect of elevation change alone. Our results help to define the effect of AIS changes on the LIG δ 18 O signals, and should be invaluable to those seeking to use AIS ice core measurements for these purposes. Especially, our simulations strengthen the conclusion that ice core measurements from the Talos Dome core exclude the loss of the Wilkes Basin at around 128 ky.

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